This is going to be a thread where I keep tabs on the Harden/Lin backcourt from game to game. I think they'll be a special backcourt and they'll out play pretty much all the other backcourts in the league... I really feel that these two will propel the Rockets into the playoffs. Let's start!

EX: Lin -2 in the OFF category means that Lin had 2 less offensive rebounds than the opposing Starting PG.

Sidenote* The forum cuts off the photos because they're too big. Click on the actual picture URL to see the whole stats/pics.

On October 31, 2009, against the Kings, a bat descended onto the court causing a stoppage of play. As the bat flew past, Ginóbili swatted the bat to the ground with his hand. He then carried the creature off the court, earning the applause of the crowd.

Offensive Categories are FGM/FG%/3FGM/3FG%/FTM/FT%/A/PTS. As such, the explanation to find the offensive winner in each category (and then as a whole) in this situation goes as such:

FGM: Winner is Opposing PG with 5 FGM. 1 win for OPG out of 1 category.FG%: Winner is Lin with 50%. 1 win for Lin out of two categories.3FGM: Winner is Opposing PG with 1 3FGM. 2 wins for OPG out of 3 categories.3FG%: Winner is Opposing PG with 33%. 3 wins for OPG out of 4 categories.FTM: TIE, both Lin and Opposing PG have the same number of FTM (4). When there is a tie, the category is not counted for, or against either player. The tally remains 3 wins out of 4 for OPG.FT%: Winner is Lin with 80%. 2 wins out of 5 for Lin.A: Winner is Lin with 10 A. 3 wins out of 6 for Lin.PTS: Winner is Opposing PG with 15 PTS. 4 wins out of 7 for OPG.

7 offensive categories were judged in this game, with the Opposing Point Guard edging out lin with 4 wins out of 7 categories. A tie is a scenario where both players win the same amount of categories. A win is based on one player having more wins than the other.

In this case, the OPG's 4 wins beats Lin's 3 wins and Lin is therefore awarded with a 3-7 (3 wins out of 7 categories) loss in the OFFENSIVE category. Therefore, Lin's advanced statline looks like this:

EXAMPLE FOR LIN:OFFENSE 3/7-L

There are three rebounding categories, (OFF,DEF,TOT):OFF: Winner is Lin with 1. 1 win out of one category for Lin.DEF: Winner is Lin with 3. 2 wins out of two categories for Lin.TOT: Winner is Lin with 4. 3 wins out of three categories for Lin.

3 rebounding categories were judged in this game, with Lin winning all three. Therefore, the advanced statline looks like this:

EXAMPLE FOR LIN:REB 3/3-W

There are two defensive categories, (STL, BLK):STL: Winner is Lin with 4. 1 win out of one category.BLK: Winner is Lin with 1. 2 wins out of two categories.

2 defensive categories were judged in this game, with Lin winning both. Therefore the statline looks like this:

EXAMPLE FOR LIN:DEFENSE 2/2-W

There is one category for control and that is Turnovers:TO: Winner is OPG with 0.

One Control category was judged in this game with Lin losing in the category, therefore the statline looks like this:

EXAMPLE FOR LIN:CONTROL 0/1-L

With all the categories completed, the entire Statline for Lin looks like this:

*The "TOTAL" category combines all the previous categories of Offense, Rebounding, Defense and Control to see if Harden/Lin outplayed their Starting counterpart in all phases of the game. In this game, Lin was slightly outplayed on the ball control and offensive end, but outplayed his counterpart in terms of rebounding and defense. With Lin winning over 50% of the judged categories, he earns an overall win at 8/13 (8 wins out of 13 categories.)

On October 31, 2009, against the Kings, a bat descended onto the court causing a stoppage of play. As the bat flew past, Ginóbili swatted the bat to the ground with his hand. He then carried the creature off the court, earning the applause of the crowd.

On October 31, 2009, against the Kings, a bat descended onto the court causing a stoppage of play. As the bat flew past, Ginóbili swatted the bat to the ground with his hand. He then carried the creature off the court, earning the applause of the crowd.

ASSISTS:Record when Harden has 10+ A 1-0Record when Lin has 10+ A 0-0Record when Harden has 7-9 A 0-0Record when Lin has 7-9 A 2-0Record when Harden has 4-6 A 0-0Record when Lin has 4-6 A 0-0Record when Harden has 0-3 A 1-0Record when Lin has 0-3 A 0-0

TEAM INFO:Record when facing a team above .500 0-0Record when facing a team at .500 2-0Record when facing a team below .500 0-0

*Will add more later/Any suggestions? Feel free to add on!

On October 31, 2009, against the Kings, a bat descended onto the court causing a stoppage of play. As the bat flew past, Ginóbili swatted the bat to the ground with his hand. He then carried the creature off the court, earning the applause of the crowd.

On October 31, 2009, against the Kings, a bat descended onto the court causing a stoppage of play. As the bat flew past, Ginóbili swatted the bat to the ground with his hand. He then carried the creature off the court, earning the applause of the crowd.

Yeah, I already feel like the Lin/Harden backcourt is going to be a "bounce your grandkids on your knees" combination. Talent, identifiability, fit, they're just awesome for NBA fans

I also predict this becomes the Lin, Harden & Machado thread by midseason if McHale plays the latter considering Toney Douglas isn't even Euroleague caliber right now. I truly believe Machado is a basketball genius, I'm surprised there wasn't more attention given to his preseason play, he was at a 14 asts per 36 clip and it was like watching Rubio's preseason games last year where the guy was seeing the court and passing angles for teammate open layups at a savant like level. And he's even a great athlete.